Mr Tulliver in George Eliot's1860 novel The Mill on the Floss famously warned his daughter against judging books by their covers and the same advice could be echoed with CD packaging.
Sacred Duets, a charming new Sony release, is guaranteed to capture hearts within a few phrases of its opening track; that is, unless you're frightened off by a booklet essay dauntingly headed, "Innovation and Tradition in the Italian Oratorio 1670-1740."
As it happens, what sounds like the title of a dry doctoral thesis introduces six welcoming pages of fascinating background. The only possible improvement would have been printing it in uncluttered black on white, with a slightly larger typeface.
It's here that we meet those Italian composers who found their way to Rome and contributed to one of the most expressive of all Baroque musical forms. It's an impressive lineage, from Alessandro Scarlatti to Nicolo Porpora who, in my youth, was unjustly relegated to the footnotes of history as Haydn's teacher.
Both men contribute to the disc's seven duets; Porpora with an elegantly stylised dialogue between Justice and Peace, one of the collection's jewels, both musically and in performance.
